What A Wonderful Chill

Mike Eubanks

01/02/2004

Let's be honest: home games have been ho-hum against Washington State for years, but there was an electricity pulsing through Maples Pavilion tonight. It was not the absence of Mike Montgomery on the bench that attracted attention, but instead the return of Josh Childress to game action. He played just seven minutes, but those 420 seconds sent a buzz through the Stanford community that will last for days...

There were reasons for apprehension coming into tonight's
Pac-10 opener against Washington State. The Cougars were a team
with perhaps the stingiest defense in the conference, and were
visiting a team who publicly has admitted to offensive execution
woes. Mike Montgomery was not even in the building, quietly
serving his one-game suspension from an incident last year
against Arizona State. And Josh Childress was coming back from a
stress reaction of his fourth metatarsal in his foot, for his
first regular season game of his junior year. The last time a
Stanford player tried to make a mid-season return from a foot
injury, Chris Hernandez again broke a metatarsal in his foot and
ended his season.

In contrast to the chilly and reserved expectations for this
first Stanford game of 2004, the results were a rousing success.
There was nary a beat skipped with Tony Fuller at the helm on the
bench, in the managment of the team as well as the substitution
decisions. Washington State made scoring runs in both halves,
that chopped Stanford leads into sawdust, but the Cardinal
answered swiftly and effortlessly each time. Best of all, Josh Childress dazzled like nobody expected, and he did so without any
apparent aggravation to his foot.

"I feel fine," the 6'8" superstar forward
reveals. "My arch has been sore, but that's normal. The arch
is sore just because of all the activity I've had the last few
days, but the metatarsal is fine."

If Childress truly does stay healthy, his return could mean
the world to this team. It's not as if Stanford has exactly
suffered in their 9-0 start before the season debut of the
"Electric Q-Tip" - with their bubbly national acclaim
and #5 ranking. But what the junior showed today in his first
game of the year, after six weeks of inactivity, was simply
incredible.

Childress entered the game for his first regular season action
of the year at the 11:14 mark, and the entire Maples crowd rose
to their feet in a spontaneous and heartfelt recognition of their
previously fallen hero. It was clear that the Stanford junior did
not need to do anything in this game to earn any praise;
the simple fact that he was back was the great celebration.

If you expected rust for Childress, then you were unsurprised
by his first offensive opportunity of the game. 39 seconds after
checking in at the scorer's table, the wing spotted up in the
corner for a three-point attempt that came up well short. But
there were no moans of disappointment from the home crowd;
Childress was expected to be out of synch in all facets of his
game.

Just don't get hurt.

That was the thought racing through every fan's mind when on
the other end of the floor Childress faced his first individual
defensive challenge. After six weeks of attention and worry with
a bone in his left left, you could only expect him to play
somewhat cautiously on both ends of the floor. Instead, the
aggressive baller pushed out his chest and spread his wide
wingspan in tight defense that denied any entry to the post by
Washington State's Jeff Varem. The Cougar looked to spin and put
up a jumper around the Stanford defender, but Childress went
right at him and blocked the shot.

It was the most unexpected moment of 2004 for Stanford
Basketball, and it portended the breakout that Childress would
enjoy in his scant few minutes of play.

Back at the other basket, Joe Kirchofer tried to score but his
short shot came hard off the iron and Childress exploded up for
the offensive rebound. In a pogo stick motion that reflects the
lightness and quickness of his vertical abilities, the fab
forward went right back up and layed the ball in for a quick
score.

"I was actually very nervous," Childress explains of
his first moments back in action. "Just the fact that I
haven't played for six or seven weeks. But I calmed down early
with an easy layup."

Though he would play only four minutes in the first half, the
rousing return would have an even more exciting offensive moment
a couple series later. Childress took the ball from the top of
the key and curled around the defense to his left and went
baseline, driving toward the basket. He went up and hit a short
jumper while drawing a foul, which would give him an old
fashioned three-point play.

In the second half Childress was again sent to the scorer's
table after the second media timeout, and he entered the game at
the 9:30 mark for another quick appearance. Once again, he looked
to spark his game with a three-point attempt on his first touch
in the first possession, but this one from the corner went down.
Less than a minute later, Childress grabbed a 15-foot offensive
rebound off a Chris Hernandez miss, and what he did next was
nothing short of a revelation. The athletic forward looked at the
basket and gave a couple fancy dribbles to put the Cougar defense
off-balance, and then Childress drove straight at the hoop with a
quick slash and went up for a leaning jumper that scored.

It was one of the most outstanding offensive plays Maples
Pavilion has seen this year, or in recent years, but for it to
come from a player out of commission and uncertain in the support
his foot could safely give him in this debut, the play was the
stuff that superlatives fail to describe.

"We know he's a great player," remarks today's head
coach, Tony Fuller. "But to score 10 points in seven minutes
- wow. You could tell by the way he moved he wasn't 100%. What a
talent."

Childress totaled 10 points in just seven minutes of play,
plus the two offensive rebounds and one blocked shot. One can
only imagine what the Stanford superstar has in his toolbelt for
longer stretches of game action, but the plan today of limited
minutes was very deliberate. The decision before the game was to
give Childress between six and 10 minutes in the game. How much
he plays in the next few games, where the junior is expected to
steadily increase his role, is up to him.

"The conditioning will take two weeks," the forward
in focus forecasts. "The timing will come quicker. Hopefully
I can come back and be myself soon because we have some tough
games coming up pretty soon. Ultimately it will come down to how
I feel and what I tell the doctors."

10 other Stanford players did combine for the other 193
minutes of play in this game, and though Childress dominated the
collective psyche of the Stanford community, there were some
other notables.

For example, Dick Bennett employed a zone defense early and
often against the Stanford offense, which would have seemed a
savvy move. The former Wisconsin coach built his reputation on
stifling defense, and a smart zone would be a good move to dare
the Cardinal arsenal that has been bereft of long-range
production outside Matt Lottich.

Stanford answered the early zone with a lot of quick passing
that found open shooters and lanes. Justin Davis scored quickly
on a slick feed from fellow post Rob Little, with Davis catching
and turning for a five-foot jumper. Little next found an opening
down low to score a layup for a 4-0 lead. The ball rotation on
offense continued to move around the outside of the arc and a
couple minutes later found an open Chris Hernandez, who canned an
open three-pointer. The starting point guard would add another
trey a couple minutes later. Hernandez helped on the passing end
as well, tossing an alley-oop to Davis for an athletic but easy
lay-in. Add a lay-up by Rob Little, a slashing trasition score by
Nick Robinson and a steal-incited transition pull-up
three-pointer by Matt Lottich - suddenly Stanford was out to a
quick 19-10 lead.

The Childress substitution and surge pushed the lead to 12, at
28-16, but the crafty Cougars would answer and twice cut the
margin to seven points. Stanford maintained its composure though
and added a 6-0 run to close out the half on the back of a flurry
of activity by Matt Haryasz. The sophomore PF/C pulled down four
rebounds in the final four minutes of the half, blocked a shot,
turned the ball over once, attempted two shots and made one.

With a lot happening in those first 20 minutes, Stanford held
a nice 37-23 lead and found themselves shooting 60% from the
field (50% from behind the arc).

The #5 Cardinal handled the first seven minutes of the second
half, but then slacked on defense and slumped on offense for a
three-minute stretch that saw the visiting Cougars surge with a
10-0 run that closed the game to 10 points, at 51-41. Then
Childress came back into the game and teamed up with Chris
Hernandez to reignite the good guys on a 9-0 run. Stanford
cruised uneventfully for the remainder and closed the final tally
with a 73-51 victory.

"I thought we played hard for the most part," Fuller
opines. "We knew we had to be aggressive defensively... but
we did it without fouling, which was good. Any win is good,
especially in the league."

Justin Davis led four Stanford scorers in double digits, with
his 13 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field and 5-of-8 at the
line. Rob Little added 10 points on 5-of-6 shooting, plus seven
rebounds. Haryasz matched that game-high of seven boards, coming
off the bench early in both halves and logging 19 minutes.

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